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Quarter of the way through the fourth book of the Malazan series, I am really starting to realize just how true this comment is: "Once you finish the series, you can read it again and understand everything now."

Never finished the first book. I've never been so offended by an author's extreme refusal to actually explain what the fuck is going on.

"I'm going to throw readers into an extremely detailed existing plot without any useful exposition, and, to show that I'm hardcore, I'm also not going to give them any relatable characters or any understanding of how their magic works!

I think I'm 7/8 of the way through it and they were just starting to get to the main plotline. Still sitting on my counter after a year.

I have been reading Ravenor: The Omnibus, and I gotta say that Abnett, despite doing very similar fantastic military fiction in an alien setting to Erikson, sells me on it a lot better. I can sort out the weird terminology pretty easily, and the "magic" doesn't assume I know a laundry list of special rules already. It's not always consistant, but far more enjoyable.

Mid-way through the series, it looked promising if rough around the edges. But by book 7 or 8 it became apparent he didn't give a shit about things like consistency, making sense, continuity or pretty much anything.

Finished the first book. I liked that there was a fair amount of interesting hints about the effects of bonding with a dragon and how it changes Laurence, without feeling the need to spell things out.

It wasn't quite so much a story arc as [Quick and Snappy Intro to get readers and/or editors interested in reading more] [A bunch of daily life stuff that builds the world and seems like what the author actually wanted to write] [Oh shoot we're getting near 300 pages, time to end it with a battle!]

I did appreciate that there was generally a lot of hints about what was going to happen and what Temeraire could do if you recognized the allusions to famous battles. Guess I'll read another one and see what direction it all goes in.

Stephenson's Anathem bought. If it is terrible, I will promptly blame you, D&D, youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.

For light reading, I prefer neuroscience. Self Comes to Mind is fantastic so far. Mmm, detailed discussions about the distinctions of consciousness in a neurobiology setting...my inner college nerd is giddy.

I disliked Anathem. It was a a slog. You could skip a half dozen, a dozen pages and Stephenson would still be describing buttresses. The fake language irritated more than it added to the experience of an alien world, and the ending felt anemic. The general story had a lot of promise and kept me interested, but by the final page I was glad to be done with it.

I think I am going to give up on Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson. I love his other books, but that one is jarringly bad. Particularly the way everyone thinks about science... 'My fried egg, an ellipse of course due to the rotation of the earth, was very tasty'.

Mistborn book one is pretty good. I didn't like book two but that might have more to do with my personal biases.

Spoiler:

I get bored of stories about kings and queens and ruling and whatnot. Hence my annoyance with WOT once I'm supposed to care who rules Andor.

Book one is easily my favorite of the trilogy. Book two was my least favorite as it had far more agonized teen/young person love than I personally care for. Book three is better, but it's kind of a downer for most of the novel which, while honestly stays true to the story and makes for an amazing finish, was kind of dull.

Finished the first book. I liked that there was a fair amount of interesting hints about the effects of bonding with a dragon and how it changes Laurence, without feeling the need to spell things out.

It wasn't quite so much a story arc as [Quick and Snappy Intro to get readers and/or editors interested in reading more] [A bunch of daily life stuff that builds the world and seems like what the author actually wanted to write] [Oh shoot we're getting near 300 pages, time to end it with a battle!]

I did appreciate that there was generally a lot of hints about what was going to happen and what Temeraire could do if you recognized the allusions to famous battles. Guess I'll read another one and see what direction it all goes in.

Novak follows up on those hints in book two then foreshadows more awesome stuff than any decent lady of standing should.

Anathem was a good read, but it barely had a plot. What there was only existed to move the scene along to the next tangent. I'm not sure you can say it had a good ending, there wasn't really anything to end.

I disliked Anathem. It was a a slog. You could skip a half dozen, a dozen pages and Stephenson would still be describing buttresses. The fake language irritated more than it added to the experience of an alien world, and the ending felt anemic. The general story had a lot of promise and kept me interested, but by the final page I was glad to be done with it.

Hey, some people love a well-formed buttress.

Anyway, people should read Feed and Deadline by Mira Grant. Heroic bloggers fight political corruption in post-zombie apocalypse America!

Like most Stephenson endings, it comes out of nowhere, ends abruptly and answers little.

The whole plot of Anathem is rambling and all over the place. The ending does nothing to pull any of this together. It's just "Ok, shows over, go home. Oh, and these random people fell in love cause ... why the fuck not."

Anathema is probably the worst Stephenson book. The premise is stupid, and since I actually know philosophy as opposed to cryptography or Enlightenment history, the asides are annoyingly wrong instead of interesting.

While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.

I understand people's complaints about Stephenson, but I still love everything of his that I've read, and that includes The Big U and Zodiac. I'd say Anathem and Cryptonomicon are my favorites, but that ordering can shift around.

I almost completely ignore every Daenerys chapter. That shit is so fucking boring and seems to only consist of her dreaming about having sex with various men, having sex with various men, or sitting there listening to people bitch about what they think she should be doing.

The whole plot of Anathem is rambling and all over the place. The ending does nothing to pull any of this together. It's just "Ok, shows over, go home. Oh, and these random people fell in love cause ... why the fuck not."

I'm pretty sure what you viewed as occasional interesting moments (pirate stuff?) I experienced as irritating interruptions in a torrent of fun.

You and me, except the pirate stuff owned :V

I have to admit, I get it. Going through the Baroque Cycle, there were certainly moments of "Oh for goodness sake, not this again", or "We've been talking about

Spoiler:

coining

for 50 pages, maybe give it a rest". But that's Stephenson, you know what you're getting into.

I think more people like Cryptonomicon because:
1) It *is* more tightly plotted, as a single book reall yhas to be
2) Geeks are a great core audience, and generically love them some crypto; many, but fewer, love them some swashbuckling with the occasional cypher.

Sure, the plot rambles all over the place - as does that of Anathem - but I can get lost in it for days at a time, and this isn't a bad thing. Whilst I've certainly heard that for specialists in the various fields (philosophy, cryptography, etc) that his discussions can be wrong, I think the average reader doesn't have that level of expertise. And even where it's wrong, I appreciate a book that is trying to make me think about why things are the way they are.

Snow Crash, I am coming to like less and less as I get older. At 15-18, it was a great rip-roaring sci-fi novel with some fun pseudo-historical-lingual connotations. Now it's...quite silly. And the

Spoiler:

bit between Y.T. and Raven

, which I barely blinked over as a teenager, is now actually a little creepy.

On the plus side, I have finally got around to reading Zelazny's 'Amber' books. Interesting thus far.

Like most Stephenson endings, it comes out of nowhere, ends abruptly and answers little.

The whole plot of Anathem is rambling and all over the place. The ending does nothing to pull any of this together. It's just "Ok, shows over, go home. Oh, and these random people fell in love cause ... why the fuck not."

Hahahaha, what book did you read?

Man, I fucking loved Anathem, start to finish. Well, it's a little slow to start when you're still figuring out the vocabulary and whatnot, but when it gets going it's just utterly fascinating and thrilling at the same time.

I also enjoyed the Baroque Cycle more than Cryptonomicon, so maybe his style of writing just appeals to me *shrug*.

I'm reading Battle Royale now. I read the Hunger Games because of well, everyone. The movie didn't really do it for me though the book was entertaining enough. I had heard how similar Battle Royale was and all that.

I'm going to just spoiler this whole thing but note that I might spoil the Hunger Games as well as Battle Royale.

Spoiler:

Definitely very similar, but with differences. Where the Hunger Games didn't spend a lot of time on "WTF is going?" I find Battle Royale does a more thorough job with the kids' thoughts and has some of them actual considering whether or not to kill people or why they should. It is easy to understand how some of them make that switch into killer. BR is also far more gruesome than I expected. Was it meant as a YA book as well?

The one thing that stops me once in a while is considering whether 15 year old people would really talk and think the way the characters do. They seem much more mature than I remember being at that age.
[/quote]

I'm reading Battle Royale now. I read the Hunger Games because of well, everyone. The movie didn't really do it for me though the book was entertaining enough. I had heard how similar Battle Royale was and all that.

I'm going to just spoiler this whole thing but note that I might spoil the Hunger Games as well as Battle Royale.

Spoiler:

Definitely very similar, but with differences. Where the Hunger Games didn't spend a lot of time on "WTF is going?" I find Battle Royale does a more thorough job with the kids' thoughts and has some of them actual considering whether or not to kill people or why they should. It is easy to understand how some of them make that switch into killer. BR is also far more gruesome than I expected. Was it meant as a YA book as well?

The one thing that stops me once in a while is considering whether 15 year old people would really talk and think the way the characters do. They seem much more mature than I remember being at that age.

[/quote]

The BR manga is a gruesome and horrifying gorefest of blood and organs and mutilation. And that's just the first half of the first issue.